Cross-overs, connections, ties and links can expose themselves at random moments. Relationships can be born out of incidental meetings. The curators of the exhibition Band / Ties, Charlie Levine (Birmingham, UK) and Suvi Lehtinen (Stockholm, Sweden) met over a dinner during the summer in Berlin, through a mutual friend and curatorial partner Elly Clarke. It was during this chance meeting that the idea of the exhibition was developed.Charlie and Suvi decided to bring together two Birmingham based artists and two Stockholm based artists for an exhibition that focuses on relationships, with people, places, families, and communities. The artists involved explore where it is they belong (or don’t), looking at where they’re from (or how this notion of origin is complicated), or the communities they’re involved in. The exhibition aims to forge links between cities and between the artistic communities of these places.Natural overlaps and connections are made within all the works, and new opportunities develop.This exhibition took place in Stockholm in December 2012 and Birmingham in January 2013.The artists are: Elly Clarke (UK) and Caitlin Griffiths (UK), Björn Karlsson (SWE) and Hanna Ljungh (SWE)

The Postcard is a contemporary project inspired by the 1893 The Postcard, at the time marketing itself as ‘the smallest journal in the world.’ Since May 2012, Charlie Levine has commissioned 10 new editions of The Postcard, each of which highlights the work of an exciting young artist, local to the Birmingham art scene, along with a couple of essays about postal art.

This project is an extension of earlier postal projects by the curator – in particular Paris Correspondence School and POST. Levine’s interest in this old fashioned communication method relates to her research into the historical use of the postcard by curators and artists, both as contemporary calls for action (Ray Johnston) and as a tool for research and memory (Walter Benjamin).

New to 2012 at mac birmingham was ALLOTMENT, an innovative programme which saw mac's Arena Gallery divided into ten plots. Each was tended to by an independent Midlands-based creative practitioner. With a plot to manage and make their own, ALLOTMENT offered plot holders the space to identify, profile and nurture new and emerging visual art talent. Plot holders included: TROVE, Clarke Gallery, Dialogue, BIAD MA Curators, Sparrow+Castice, Dan Auluk, Moonbeams, Helen Foot Design, mac staff and Next Generation.